House GOP weighs its next move

House Republicans are trying to figure out how to get things back on track.

After a bruising 2011 — one that ended with an embarrassing defeat for Speaker John Boehner on the payroll tax cut — Republican leaders are scrambling for a fresh election year agenda that can propel their party to victory in November.

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But they’re pulled between competing aims: They need to please their conference by pushing through legislation that helps them score political and policy points in an election year. But at the same time, they need to ensure that their agenda doesn’t hurt the eventual Republican presidential nominee on the campaign trail. And they want to keep fighting President Barack Obama, who has couched much of his campaign on running against an unpopular Congress.

Against this backdrop, Republican leaders had a sober gathering at the National Harbor conference center on the banks of the Potomac River in Maryland. The opening dinner of the session Monday, usually a time for “rah-rah” speeches by party leaders, had none of that this year, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

It was a far cry from a year ago, when Boehner was sworn in as speaker and Republicans were celebrating huge gains in the House.

Now, Boehner knows that some of the discontent among House Republicans is aimed at him personally. The veteran Ohio Republican told leadership lawmakers and aides that he understands where the House Republican Conference is: they’re frustrated. It’s a message Boehner plans to deliver Wednesday, at a closed-door, members-only session in the Capitol, a GOP source said.

The House GOP’s main goals for 2012, according to several sources present at the two-day strategy conference, include giving their lawmakers additional legislative victories to bring home this year; keeping their messaging focused on what they consider to be Obama’s failures, especially on the economy; and beginning to explore the political landscape of 2013 if Republicans win the White House and the Senate.

But it’ll be tough. The rough-and-tumble 2011 session has Republicans yearning for more legislative victories to give them something to run on in November, but it’s unclear how successful they’ll be in 2012.

Despite the December payroll debacle and Congress’s dismal poll ratings, Republicans think the national climate remains favorable to them. At the leadership retreat Monday, Republicans got a peek at a poll that showed Obama is personally popular, but policy wise has fallen short.

Despite good numbers, they’re still wary of inaction. House Republicans said they still want bold legislating in the Capitol to show the party has the antidote to cure the ailing economy.

At the same time, GOP leaders don’t want to move forward on anything in Washington that gives Obama further ammunition against the Republican-controlled House in the November election.

Internally, House Republicans have yet to come to agreement on a big-ticket bill to push through the chamber, although several options are under consideration.

The biggest item on the 2012 agenda so far is Boehner’s transportation and energy production legislation. House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) are expected to mark it up in the next few weeks.